Gramps
by The Sh33p
Summary: A look into the mind of the greatest genius the Helic Republic has ever produced: Doctor D! One shot, R&R, enjoy!


  
  
**Disclaimer:** I don`t own Zoids.  
  
Gramps 

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Ahh... This is the life.   
  
Watching two crazy kids I think of like my grandchildren just walking right on off into the sunset in a big ol` blue Blade Liger, dragging along a bunch of cans and all that...   
  
Almost brings a tear to my eye to see how those two have come along. Reminds me of my son and his wife sorta. Funny, but it`s true. Except for that one little catch about Fiona reminding me more of my daughter than Van reminding me about my son.   
  
What can I say? I`m 78, I`ve been married three times and I`m a widow through the only one that mattered. I got five kids, thirteen grandkids and two great grandkids, but only the two who I adopted really mean anything to me anymore.   
  
Van Fleiheit. Snot nosed, cocky punk with a mullet. Fiona Alysse Lenette-Fleiheit. Caring, nice young woman with particularly good taste in coffee. They`re my real great grandkids, the ones I talked about a few seconds ago. None of my grandchildren have children of their own, not even Emma or Siet, so Van and Fiona are kinda like my great grandkids. Fiona more so than Van, but Van keeps calling me gramps so... Ah well.   
  
Oh, my name is Doctor Dee Phabes, former scientist for the Republic, technical advisor to the Guardian Force, creator of the Gunsniper and Lightning Saix both, and inventor of the concepts behind both the Republic Supercannon and the Gravity Cannon. I`m an absolute genius, aren`t I?   
  
But I get bored easily...   
  
Oh!   
  
There`s also the whole deal about my 'other' grandkids. Only ten of my grandkids are related to me, the other three are adopted like Van and Fiona. They don`t know it, but do I care?   
  
Yeah actually, but I`ll get back to that.   
  
One of them is a girl I just _love_ tormenting... Really, she`s always wearing skimpy, undersized clothing, has that tan and the hair that just sets me off and... _**AND!**_ she has one of those weirdo names ya can`t help but love! Even if she is a rotten, greedy asshole!   
  
Her name is Moonbay. Should`a seen the look on her face when I set her and her boyfriend to the Guylos military police... Heh heh. Her boyfriend - they`re not exactly official, mind you - is another asshole. He`s named Irvine, about a year older than her(I think), strapping young guy, wears a crappy eyepatch/recorder/zoom lense/projector thing and couldn`t brush his hair if you paid him. Does look good in a tux, but that`s about it.   
  
After _that_, there`s the only one of my 'grandkids' that I honestly relate to. Sure, he`s not as socially adept as me(**_HAH-HA!_**), but he`s still a genius like me. Too bad he`s too busy trying to live up to his brother`s shadow. Kid`s name is Thomas Schubaltz. Dibison pilot, geek, techie and a future great in the scientific world. I figure he`s the one who I`ll pass most of my knowledge on to, Fiona doesn`t seem as interested as she used to be and Thomas isn`t exactly someone to have a social life, so _he_ get`s it!   
  
Assuming of course, he stops looking at me like I`m Satan and avoiding me like the plague. A minor setback of course, but still.   
  
Hmmm...   
  
Oh yeah, theres also my pet dog, Zeke. Sure, he`s bigger than I am, weighs on the order of 700 pounds and could bite someone`s head off if he felt like it, but he`s _still_ my pet dog! He just walks on two feet instead of four, that`s all.   
  
Uh... There`s also Raven and Riese and Specular and Shadow but... They don`t really count. Those four might be on friendly terms with Van(sort of...), but they still scare the blue hell out of me. Seriously, how many people do you know who could stab you to death with their chin?! And Riese... Jesus man, she`s always reading people`s minds. Their Organoids aren`t even friendly, like Zeke is.   
  
Beats Ambient, but still.   
  
They don`t scare Thomas that much but I guess he just hasn`t developed any common sense yet. Oh, most people think I have no common sense either, but think about it this way: Common sense is exceedingly rare now, so it`s _un_common sense. Thomas has that uncommon sense, he just needs to realize when to use it.   
  
Too bad he`s a pilot though. They never learn... Usually they just don`t live long enough. There is Krueger, but he`s an exception.   
  
I suppose nobody wants me to stick around for the after-wedding activities... Besides, I don`t want to have to do any work. I`m a frail old man after all.   
  
Heh heh heh. Frail old man.   
  
God I love how stupid the young can be sometimes.   
  
Always thinking that I`m just old and senile. Puh-leeze...   
  
And Irvine thinks he can read me. He thinks he can read the greatest mind the Republic has _ever_ produced. Feh. Stupid whelp, he`ll learn, probably not while I`m alive, but he _will_ learn at some point. Heck, that guy`s such a dolt that I had him wrapped around my pinky after stealing his Zoid. And I could do it again just because his ego won`t let someone call him weak. And Moonbay too, all I have to do to get her to do what I want is say that there`s a reward that`d give her a lifetime of riches in an instant if she does this or that. Of course I haven`t done it, it`d only work once, but still.   
  
Fiona`s too nice though. And too scared. I honestly fear for that girl, she`ll probably outlive all of us - and her kids, grandkids, great grandkids and then a few generations after that. Not sure if Riese will be the same - I hope not, but she hasn`t let anyone do any tests on her. But yeah, I fear for Fiona.   
  
About five or six years ago - give or take a few months - Van woke up Zeke and Fiona in a pair of pod-thingies. Fiona`s only ever really trusted four people since then, Van, Moonbay, Irvine and me. She`s coming to where I think she holds the same level of trust with Thomas, but only us four have really been there for her during that time. I still think that even now, after facing down the Death Saurer, Prozen, the Death Stinger, Hilz, Raven and Riese and god knows what else, she`s still afraid of the world around her.   
  
Van is the same age - physically - as Fiona. Maybe a bit older but mostly just about the same. Do the math folks. It was kinda ordained that those two would end up together. I think they really do love each other, but I think for Fiona it originally began out of fear, and for Van, it originally began out of protectiveness. That guy`s a hero, but he doesn`t even know how deep his heroism goes.   
  
Mark my words, however grim they may be:   
  
Van Fleiheit is going to die before he`s sixty, on the battlefield. When and how, during that time, I don`t know.   
  
When he does, if Thomas is around, he and Fiona will become especially close, but she`s never going to love anyone else. They`ll be friends, he may even come to be more of a father to she and Van`s children than Van himself will be, but it won`t ever grow past an extremely close friendship. I know how they both work, better than they do.   
  
Thomas worries me a bit though, I think he`s figured Van`s lifespan out even more than I have. Soldiers hold something of an understanding with each other that I, as a scientist, will never be able to relate to. That gives him a more key vantage point into it all.   
  
Pretty sad, if you ask me. As for the others...   
  
Thomas, I think, will end up like a childless version of me. Maybe not as handsome and charming of course, certainly not as professional with the ladies, but he`ll probably end up without any children of his own. Whether it`s because of his whole deal with Fiona or not, I don`t know.   
  
Moonbay and Irvine, probably, will wind up having one child out of wedlock, then eventually get married after about three years and then finally settle down somehow. They might have kids after that, but I somehow don`t think Moonbay will be up for giving birth a second time. She`s the type for whom the realities of pregnancy, birth and raising a kid are all going to hit her like a brick. Irvine`s about the same, but they`ll pull through better than they`ll think they will.   
  
Raven... I`m not too sure about him, or Riese for that matter. They`ll probably have a kid too, but they won`t know what to do during most of the pregnancy, and most of the process of raising the kid. Raven will probably become something along the lines of friends with Van during that time, and after that, Thomas and Fiona. Riese _might_ as well, but it`ll probably be more of an information-based sort of thing. Neither of those two really know how to handle a kid so they`ll need help, and Van, Thomas and Fiona, sadly, are the first choices for that.   
  
What else...   
  
What else...   
  
Damn. I`m getting absent minded in my age.   
  
Where`d I park again?   
  
... Crap. I think I`m lost...   
  


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**Author`s Note:** Not senile, eh, Gramps? :P  
  
Sh33p out. 


End file.
